Doc on Manny: That’s shocking and disappointing

Posted By
Mike Petraglia
On
May 7, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
In
General |
1 Comment

WALTHAM – Celtics[1] coach Doc Rivers[2] is not just an NBA head coach, he is a huge sports fan. And when news broke Thursday that Manny Ramirez[3] had been suspended 50 games for testing positive for a performance-enchancing substance, he reacted just like a sports fan.

“It’s disappointing, it really is,” Rivers said before his team’s film session. “It’s the baseball whole thing and that’s obviously a part of it right now. I don’t know. That’s shocking and disappointing.”

But Rivers didn’t stop there. He battles with the issue much like every sports fan does, trying to weigh what matters to fans and what’s in the best interest of the sport.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I go both ways on it. I don’t know how much the fans really care about it in some ways. I think the players should care more about their health more than the whole steroid thing. Obviously, a lot of them have done it and probably half of them have been caught, you know, who knows?”

Then there was the reaction of Paul Pierce[4], the Celtics captain who hails from Los Angeles and has been friends with Manny Ramirez[5] since they were star athletes in Boston.

“For real? Aww, man! That’s my boy,” Pierce was heard saying when told of the news that Ramirez had tested positive for a performance enhancing drug.

“It doesn’t tarnish my image in a lot of ways about these players. They’re still great players. Barry Bonds[6], to me, is still one of the greatest players ever to play baseball, whether he used steroids or not. He still is and you can’t convince otherwise of that. I just hope it all goes away. I hate anything that deflects from the game. I just hope it all goes away.”